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Spring Flower Basket

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This is a card I created for Memory Box awhile ago, but was just posted yesterday. The Flower Basket Bouquet from the Spring Blossom release, is sure to get a lot of use. I stuck very close to the design on the product envelope but earlier I used just the tulips to make a simple bouquet and have used a few of the flowers on other projects. So many possibilities, especially when combined with the Woven Basket die from the recent Birthday Blossoms release. 

I die cut the basket from light gray cardstock, and added some ink blending to give it some dimension. I die cut the backing to the basket with dark gray cardstock. 

All the flowers and leaves with die cut with scraps of cardstock in my stash—many of them from Memory Box paper packs: Blush, Lagoon, Sunrise and Greenery. I added a bit of ink blending to some of them, and used a Sakura Black Glaze pen to add centers to the small white flowers. 


The largest of the Oval Eyelet Rectangle Frames was die cut from dark gray cardstock and then adhered to a light gray card base. I attached the basket to the background with dimensional tape which makes it easier to arrange the flowers. I also added some bits of dimensional tape to some of the flowers. The final touch was to add a few clear Fairy Drops.  

I deliberately left off a sentiment. It will be easy to add a little tag for a birthday or thinking of you card when I need it.

Spring is definitely on its way despite nearly freezing temperatures the last couple of night. The forsythia is beginning to bloom, the daffodils are blooming, and there are more warm, sunny days. It will continue to be a roller coaster of temps until May, but the light is beginning to appear!

Happy Easter!

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The last of the Easter cards were finally finished yesterday—just in time. The first three are variations of the bunny card I posted here, and use the same products except for the flowers. This time I used The Greenery’s Bigger Botanicals: Jacob’s Ladder and Soapwort.


The last card was made for a friend. It uses one of my all-time favorite Easter images: Rejoice Rabbit by Waffle Flower. It’s no longer available, so I’m glad to have it in my stash.


It’s cold, damp,and dreary here. Not the kind of Easter weather you’d like to have. I feel sorry for all the parents who had Easter Egg Hunts planned for today. The church service this morning, however, was joyful and the beautiful flowers remind me that Spring is coming—albeit a lot slower than I’d like.

I’m sending the Rejoice Rabbit off to The Card Concept. My Clean and Simple card was inspired by the pretty flowers in their inspiration photo. It’s also going to Inkspirational: CAS: E is for . . . Easter, of course.

Easter Cards: Round 1

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The first two Easter cards are finished. Just Us Girls opened their new challenge just at the right time: Die Cut Week: Spring or Easter. I couldn’t get started on my Easter cards as early as I would have liked since we left for Wisconsin just as The Greetery released their Spring Jardin Collection. My new goodies were waiting for me when I got home. 

I love this Chocolate Bunny, and the card is a  CASE of one of Kelly Lunceford’s gorgeous cards. I used products from the Golden Egg suite of products, one of the new Bigger Botanicals (Hawthorn) as well as the darling chocolate bunny.

I decided against a sentiment on the front, but add this to the inside of the card:

The Silly Goose line of products is so much fun, and this will surely be the first of many cards you’ll see using them.

I wanted the goose to hold the smallest of the eggs which you can then emboss in the Shortbread Shapes Rectangle: Easter embossing folder.

I love the inside sentiment which came from last year’s Hey, Honeycomb Spring Sentiment set from The Greetery.

Along with JUGS, I’m sending this off to Darnell’s NBUS blog – almost everything on these cards is new!

I’ll be back soon with three more Chocolate Bunny cards that must be finished by Sunday.

Color Hues #130

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Nancy’s the hostess for this new Color Hues Challenge. She chose Fuchsia and Navy. I knew exactly what I wanted to create with this color combination.


I couldn’t resist purchasing the Spellbinder’s January Small Die of the Month, Sunny Stems. I’ve held off using it until now because I thought it would work perfectly with this color combination, and I’m not disappointed.


I die cut two of the shapes to create a navy card base. Then I cut all the “petals” and added them to the card front with dimensional tape after adding some ink blending to the bottom of each. I die cut the half circle for the sentiment and ink blended it as well before white embossing the sentiment from Pinkfresh Studio’s Butterfly Garden. I love the font of the sentiment, and “hello” is general enough to use for a variety of occasions—determined by the inside greeting. I’m holding off on that for now. I added it to the card front with dimensional tape as well. 

For once, I carefully planned how to use the two hues of fuchsia cardstock (one from The Stamp Market and the other from Paper Source) and white cardstock before die cutting all the pieces to create the flowers. I chose a light gray for the stems and leaves and added some ink blending to each of those as well. For the large middle floral, I ink blended the bottom portion of the flower with some fuchsia ink to darken it a bit. The flowers turned out to be easier to assemble than I thought.

I hope this color combo inspires you to create a card to add to our gallery. Before you head to your crafting table, be sure to check out all the inspiration on the Color Hues Blog from my very creative Design Team members. 

I’m sending this off to Darnell’s NBUS gallery—sure to be one of the early entries in the April collection. 

Woodblock Wednesday: March 2026 Edition

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This is my second post for the day. I’ve been a lot busier at the craft table than the posts here would indicate because I’ve had to work ahead for both Color Hues and Memory Box since there’s more than the usual travel in March and April. I did, however, make time to create a card for Woodblock Wednesday.

This wonderful stamp of a fountain pen is very old. It has a date of 1994 on it and is from Stampa Rosa. The summer of 1996 we went on a three week trip to California with our kids. I was already heavily into stamping, and planned several stops at stamp stores; one of them was Stampa Rosa. What I remember specifically about this store was how welcoming and helpful the staff was. (I also fondly remember how patient my two teenagers were! Remember there were no “devices” in 1996.) I love that pulling out a stamp can bring back memories you haven’t thought about in awhile.


My first idea was to stamp this in three different colors. No matter what ink I chose, I couldn’t get a clean image. When I moved to black, it was perfect. Just as well, as I’m in need of masculine birthday cards, and this one now has someone’s name on it. It’s stamped on white cardstock, but it looks more ivory in the top photo. I tried redoing it, but it’s just the light I have! After stamping it three times, I die cut it with one of the Greetery Postal Frames.

The sentiment from Stamp Oasis was stamped on white cardstock and die cut with one of Simon Says Stitched Rectangles. The card needed some interest in the background so I ran a panel of black cardstock through the die cutting machine with Altenew’s Basic Plaid 3D Embossing Folder. (Sadly, not easy to see.)

I’m sending this card to the AAA Card Challenge: Anything CAS, but not the optional twist!

Thanks, as always, to Amy for hosting Woodblock Wednesday.


A Little Sparkle

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I’m up on the Memory Box Blog today with a birthday card that, for me, might just be a little over the top! I do love the happy colors!

I wanted a bit of sparkle and glam so started by stenciling a panel with the 6X6 Polkadot stencil using bright pink, teal, and orange inks. For the fourth and final stencil I applied a layer of Pearl Shimmer Relief Paste. I set that aside to let it dry completely while I die cut the largest of the Notched Eyelet Frames from silver metallic cardstock. Then I trimmed down the stenciled panel so it would fit just inside the decorative frame. I used a corner rounder to round the corners of the panel before adhering it to the silver frame. Next, I created a card base from bright pink cardstock and rounded the corners of the card base before adding the decorative panel. 

The greeting was stamped with bright pink ink on white cardstock and die cut with the accompanying die. I added it to the card front with dimensional tape. The final touch was to scatter a few crystal clear Fairy Drops for some added sparkle. 

I’m sending this off to Addicted to Stamps and More: Birthdays.

I’ll be back a bit later with my entry into the March Woodblock Wednesday group.

Color Hues #129

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The new Color Hues Challenge is live, and it’s a good one. Marcia has chose Purple and Marigold.


Once again, it’s not a color combo I would have gone to, but I loved working with it. I pulled out an older favorite from Concord and 9th: Paper Posies. The set comes with dies as well as an embossing folder for some of the blooms. I used that on just one of the flowers.

I got a gift certificate for Christmas for Spellbinders and one of the dies I purchased is Stitched Edge Circle Backgrounds die. I’ve seen a number of cards using these dies and was quite sure it would work for this challenge.

The circle was die cut from white cardstock and added to a white card base. I did cut the flowers from colored cardstock and the leaves from a heavy vellum and arranged them around the left edge of the circle. The beautiful gold foiled sentiment is from Spellbinders You Are Everything and was a perfect fit. 


You’ll find lots of inspiration on the Color Hues Blog from my talented Design Team members and Guest Designer, Chris.

Floral Wreath

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I’m on the Memory Box blog today with a floral wreath that shouts Springtime to me. We had just a taste of spring the last two days, but today it is pouring rain, windy and much chillier. Temps in the 30’s are in the forecast again. That IS March in western New York, but after 50+ years here, I’ve yet to give up my futile wishing.

The card uses just the florals from the Woven Basket die. The flowers are so pretty they can be used in a variety of ways.


I die cut multiple flowers and leaves from papers in the Greenery, Lagoon, and Sunrise paper packs, and added some subtle ink blending before assembling them. I cut a 4.5X4.5 panel from lightly textured cardstock and used one of the Basic Circle Dies to lightly draw a circle in the center.


The next step was to stamp a sentiment from the Birthday Greetings stamp set in the center of the circle. Then it was time to arrange the flowers and leaves to create the wreath. I added dimensional tape to some of the flowers and leaves. There are many options for layering the florals as you can see. Finally I added the panel to a 5X5 card base.

I’m sending this off to the AAA Card Challenge: Use Die Cuts, and to The Card Concept: Spring Flowers (this card fits their Clean and Layered category.

With Sympathy

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A sketch challenge isn’t where I usually start with a card, but when I saw the current sketch at Freshly Made Sketches I knew immediately that I could use it to create a sympathy card I needed. 


When I looked through my dies for something to use for the background in the sketch I discovered the Botanical Branch by Pinkfresh Studio that I hadn’t used in the longest time. I thought it would work well for both elements of the sketch.


I first dry embossed the die on watercolor paper. Then I die cut it twice and separated the branch from the narrow frame. I glued those together for some dimension and carefully laid them on the dry embossed image. 


I first dry embossed the die on watercolor paper. Then I die cut it twice and separated the branch from the narrow frame. I glued those together for some dimension and carefully laid them on the dry embossed image. 

I cut down that panel (hope that works for the sketch) and added it to the card base. The sentiment from Altenew’s Sentiment Strips, was embossed in gold, and die cut with one of Honey Bee’s Sentiment Banners.

In addition to Freshly Made Sketches, I’m sending this off to the Neglected Stuff Challenge. I’m so intent on trying to use NBUS products, I don’t often have an opportunity to share a card with very old products.

Color Hues 128

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It’s my turn to be the hostess for the new Color Hues Challenge. I have to admit my choice of Green and Gold was somewhat selfish since my husband has a St. Patrick’s Day birthday,


In the past, I’ve created birthday cards with a shamrock theme, but this year, I pulled out an older cover plate die from Pinkfresh Studio, Geo Tiles. I die cut the coverplate in metallic gold and adhered it to a bright green card base. 


Once that was done, I decided it needed some more interest, so I inlaid a few of the gold diamonds and added a few black pearls. The foiled sentiment from Ellen Hutson’s Birthday Vibes was conveniently found in my stash of prepared sentiments. 


I hope you’ll find some fun ways to create with this color combination, and join me, the Design Team, and our Guest Designers, Darnell Knauss and Donna Phelan, by adding a card (or two) to our gallery!

Happy Birthday, Matt!

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Today is Matt’s birthday. We’ll be celebrating with him and his family at dinner tonight.


My friend, Michelle, sweetly lent me a Stamp Market kit she got quite some time ago. I die cut a variety of images and this is the first time I’ve used the Stylish Happy Birthday die. Knowing I’d probably use this for Matt, I die cut the shadow from Papertrey Silver Shimmer cardstock and the HB from Spellbinders Brushed Black cardstock. 

The black has a subtle shine to it that’s difficult to capture in a photograph. The sentiment from My Favorite Things, Birthday Wishes, was embossed in silver on a scrap of the Brushed Black cardstock. It was die cut with one of the Skinny Mini Banners by Papertrey Ink. 

I’m sending this off to Seize the Birthday. I always seem to forget there’s an Anything Goes category for that challenge, but I want to be more intentional about getting my birthday cards posted there. 

Woodblock Wednesday-February 2026 Edition

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I’ve missed the last two Woodblock Wednesdays so as soon as we got home from our winter break in Georgia, I sat down to create a card for today’s Woodblock Wednesday post. 

On our way home, we spent two nights with Tracy’s brother and sister-in-law who rent a house in Wilmington, NC for two-three months. The weather there was the warmest we saw on the whole trip! I wanted to send them a thank you note so that was on my mind when I chose the stamps for this card.


I had to stamp the main image (Steamy Cups by Stampington & Co.) a couple of times before I found the right coloring medium. First I tried colored pencils, but I wasn’t thrilled with how it came out. Then I remembered buying new set of retractable markers at Dick Blick’s the last time I was there. I don’t have a wide range of colors in the set by Zebra, but was able to make them work. 

After coloring the image, I die cut it with Waffle Flowers Lacy Layers. First the main image, and then another layer with a pretty scalloped and stitched edge. Seemed perfect for the stack of tea cups. The sentiment, Thanks Script, is from A Muse Artstamps. I know I bought it at Impress Stamps in Seattle many years ago, and it remains a favorite. I must admit I often forget about my wooden stamps when I’m looking for sentiments.

Thanks, as always, Amy, for hosting this monthly post!

I’m sending this of to Addicted to Stamps and More where the challenge is Make Your Mark. 

Color Hues # 127

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Jules has chosen Peach and Teal for our mid-February Color Hues Challenge.

After being buried in snow this winter, these spring colors shouted “florals” to me. I pulled out another NBUS floral stamp, Charming Bouquet, from Altenew was sent to me last year as a thank you. It included dies for the floral bouquet as well as the sentiments. Such a nice gift!


I decided to do some watercoloring, so stamped and embossed the design onto ArtPop watercolor paper. I love the texture of this paper, and use it for card bases as well as for watercoloring. I used a mixture of Zig Clean Color Brush markers and Tomboy markers with a damp brush in order to get the hues of peach and teal I wanted. I also used light and medium gray markers as a neutral.

After watercoloring and die cutting the florals, I used a card design I saw on Michele Short’s blog some time ago. I die cut two of the Pinkfresh Studio Nested Hexagon Blanket Stitch dies and glued them together for some dimension. Then I arranged the florals, adding dimensional tape where needed. I also used dimensional tape to adhere the die cut sentiment (from Charming Bouquet.) When I went hunting for some embellishments, I was delighted to find some peach jewels by Pinkfresh Studio. 

As always, you’ll find plenty of inspiration on the Color Hues Challenge blog from my talented Design Team members as well as our Guest Designer, Gundi.

Valentine’s Day

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We were away on Valentine’s Day, and I didn’t get around to posting my last valentines in advance. Fortunately, I hand delivered some of them, and the rest were in the mail in plenty of time to have arrived before yesterday.

All the valentines used some of The Greetery’s recent Amour Market release. I made three of the shaped valentine below for my granddaughters. Lovely Lady cardstock was cut with the Shortbread Shapes: Scalloped Hearts die and then placed in the gorgeous embossing folder.

I gently ran a white ink pad ove the embossed designs to make them stand out a bit more. The small heart in the middle was die cut with the Whole Hearted Die in Raspberry Fizz cardstock and embossed in the Coquette Hearts Embossing Folder. I added a small pearl from Altenew in the center.

The next two cards are variations on the same design. I started by die cutting the large heart in the small manner I die cut the smaller heart in the first valentine. I used Raspberry Fizz for the first card and added a gold metallic frame using the Filagree Hearts Die. I stamped and gold embossed the sentiment with the Simple Valentine Mini Sentiments set. The Regency Bow #1 (from an earlier release) was die cut with Lovely Lady cardstock and I added some ink blending for some added interest. All of it was added to a card base of watercolor paper.

The second valentine is exactly the same, except I used Gina K Cherry Kisses cardstock, and changed the orientation of the card from horizontal to vertical.

The last valentine is a more Clean and Simple design, using some of the same products. The large red heart was cut from the Whole Hearted Die, but not embossed. I layered a white embossed heart on top and added another of the Altenew white pearls to the center. For this card I created a square card base from the Cherry Kiss cardstock, and then a pretty white stitched and scalloped square that I found in my stash, (I’m unsure of the manufacturer since I die cut a group of these shapes at a friend’s house several years ago,) The sentiment is from a much older Greetery stamp set: Sentiment Suites: Love, embossed in white and die cut with Papertrey Ink’s Skinny Mini Banners.

Although I’m a day late in posting these, I’m not too late to play along with several challenges. The first valentine is off to Shoppping Our Stash which is looking for Shaped Cards and to Time Out: Choose Two; I’m picking pink and hearts.

One or more of the three other valentines are going to Tic Tac Toe where I used the top row across: Hearts, Die Cutting, Pink/Red and Just Us Girls: Word Week-Valentine,

Make A Wish

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I have a new card up on the Memory Box blog this morning, and wanted to share it here,

I love Sebastian Mouse on a swing. Not long ago, I saw a tutorial for a Faux Tunnel card and thought it would be great for Sebastian Mouse.

I die cut the mouse from white and gray cardstock and his cute outfit from papers in the Sunrise Cardstock Pack. Although the die includes texture for the wooden swing, I cut it from a scrap of woodgrain cardstock. I added a bit of ink blending to the individual pieces before assembling the mouse and the swing.

To create the Faux Tunnel, I chose three pieces of cardstock from the Lagoon Cardstock Pack and cut a circle from each using the Basic Circle Dies, making sure I layered the pieces so they created an even tunnel effect. I used the 4th largest circle, and then the 8th and 6th largest. For the last layer, I created a white card base, hand cut two “cloud” stencils and used a blue ink to create a sky.

I popped each layer up with dimensional tape. Before adding the top layer I attached Sebastian Mouse to the backside, adding two layers of foam tape to the back of the mouse. For the sentiment, I added a tiny brad to the White Greeting Tag and attached it with a bit of dimensional foam. 

The card came together easily, and if you’re a card maker, it makes for a more unique card design. Despite the two layers of dimensional tape, it went into an envelope pretty easily.

There’s a lot of die cutting here, so I thought I send this over to A Cut Above where it’s always Anything Goes. I haven’t played along with them in quite awhile.

It’s still snowing here. Everyone has had enough. We haven’t seen the pavement on our driveway since I got back from my trip south two weeks ago. At least the sub-zero temperatures have eased up a bit.

Stay warm!